1. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
What Paper Mario 64 does, The Thousand-Year Door does better. The direct sequel improves upon everything laid down by its successor. While it does recycle some past ideas, there are plenty of fresh things that make this game an absolute joy to play.
Not only does this game have the most interesting environments and characters to interact with, but its chapter-based story gives a multi-atmosphere feeling to this game that is hard to find in video games as a medium. Most Paper Mario games, including this one, make you go to a new area, solve a couple of puzzles, and then collect the item that you came there for (usually a legendary star or something akin to that).
Thousand-Year Door, on the other hand, has the player go through very different set pieces to complete each chapter. For example, there’s one that has you working your way up a fighting area while trying to solve the mystery of where and how some of the other fighters are disappearing to.
Whereas the next chapter has you visit a very depressing, cursed town where the residents get turned into pigs every time the church bell tolls. You thus have your body stolen by the monster that lives in the church, and you have to discover his name in order to get your body back. The chapters aren’t too long, so they never overstay their welcome, meaning you’re always onto the new thing. There is always something new to discover that keeps gameplay fresh.
Is the Thousand-Year Door perfect, though? No. There is a ton of backtracking, and the pacing isn’t always the greatest; luckily, the game is filled to the brim with interesting characters in the world and also in your party. And the battle system, although similar to the original game, makes every little battle a joy that takes some level of strategy.
There may be some small issues with this sequel, but it is without a doubt the best Paper Mario game, if not a contender for the best Mario game of all time.
